that was u.s. versus cookshank, which arose out of a horrible massacre. one of the worst in the reconstruction period, where a whole -- hundreds or more, blacks, had tried to defend themselves in louisiana, and were attacked by a white crowd, and the federal government attempted to prosecute the attackers. on the grounds they had deprived the blacks who were killed of their right -- >> amend. >> guest: -- the supreme court didn't find that was the case. it said at that time we don't see there was any racial motivation at all here to deprive blacks of their rights specifically, and in a kind of aside, the ruling said that the right to keep and bear arms in the second amendment was not a right granted by the constitution. it was a preexisting right. and so if there was any application, courts alert extended from that to say if it was depriving anybody, it was the federal government. so i was a limitation on the federal government. >> host: that's how most of the bill of rights is interpreted by the courts. only applied the federal government unless it was s